Oasis

October4,2006
An oasis can be so many different things to different people. I think its where we find respite from either stresses or humdrum. Others posts, photography, gardening and nature all provide varying degrees of that oasis for me.

Yesterday I got the papers ready for a trip to the recycle. There was a HUGE accumalation and I skipped through them looking for the Friday sections containing Florida gardening tips. So much of our local news has been dreadful lately, so the gardening spot is an oasis for me. In one of these there was an article about things to do in Lakeland, including a map and listing of parks and public areas around the city. I believe there were 45 different parks. I'm happy to say that most of them may include a few benches strategically placed, perhaps a restroom somewhere on the property and some policing of the grounds keeping it litter free. For the most part the areas are left as natural as possible. Lakeland is a large city - both in population and in acreage. Its also full of uninhabited areas and therefore so much wildlife. In spite of being a major industrial hub because of the interstate and other roads meeting toward the south of the city, its a very country area. We have several feed stores where the 'cowboys' can find whatever they need... and we do have cowboys. Most of the larger herds of cattle tend to be in surrounding areas, but a lot of the workers do live here.





These pictures were taken at Lake Morton and at Lake Mirror which is a small round lake in the heart of downtown. On its perimeter is the tall electric company building and assorted other office buildings and Hollis Gardens. I've included some pictures that I didn't take, but my daughter Lisa did. She also loves photography, as does my grandson and they share his Olympus camera. One of his photos won the county purchase award through the museum here. An art dealer was very excited over his pictures but at the time at 13 years old, his interests were fairly short lived. His true passion is working on computers and developing software to make things easier for more people to use. He's now 18 and spends 2/3 of his day at school working with the computer teacher on the schools computer systems.

I have never seen this particular aspect of a pelican's bill... Perhaps he's airing it out before the next fishing foray. This duck is a muscovy. When you can see the many colors in their feathers, an ugly duckling becomes almost beautiful. People feed them and they seem to multiply at an almost alarming rate.





This last picture makes me laugh.. makes me think of bookends.

Lisa has a special gift for perspective in her pictures, I think (this couldn't be the words of a proud mama, could it?) lol... She was playing with the camera and self portraits in Picasa2 - an online storage, sharing and editing web site. Even something like figuring out how to use something new can turn into one of those "oasis moments'.


The times that we've gone walking in the woods and looked through the camera's eye and seen the most infinitely beautiful things are like mini vacations.


I love this idea of being able to blot out everything but the features. How amazing is man's creativity.

This post is rather disjointed... I've read a few lately who have voiced how I've been feeling. Like there is nothing to say. I originally started out to keep a record of the garden here.. and then 'Alice' talked about writing 'life stories', which is a marvelous idea.. and then I read so many things that played on similar chords in my heart and thoughts.

My husband has been away helping friends move out of state and is now home. I'm hoping things will begin to feel back to normal now. I realize that He is part of the oasis God provides for me day to day.